Friday, December 26, 2008

Did you play in Peter Shankman’s Boxing Day trivia contest on Twitter today? You may know Peter or Skydiver from the Help a Reporter Out program that he created to help provide credible sources for reporters. As a result of HARO and his professional activities, Peter has over 18,000 followers on Twitter. He also acquired lots of SWAG throughout the year which he chose to give away on the day of Christmas Eve. His contests were so popular that many sponsors contacted him to give away their prizes and lots of good stuff, like Oggio Travel gear, a custom Snow board, a Peek email device, and the grand prize, a Reno/Tahoe winter escape for two. All in all, over 50 prizes worth over $12,000. Peter asked all kinds of trivia questions and received over 6000 replies, the top @’ed person all day, according to Tweetstats. Brian Shaler joined Peter and hooked up a camera so that the contest was streamed from Peter’s living room.

As you can see, a pretty popular contest and a fabulous way to engage an audience on Twitter. Brands, large and small that are joining Twitter should pay attention to this as it is a fantastic way to get visibility to your brand, engage with your audience/ prospects in a fun way and ultimately sell more products. An excellent corporate use of Twitter and social media.

And the final trivia question:

The lucky winner:

Congrats to ThirdHyphen, Peter, Brian and everyone who played. It was great fun and a real example of how brands can use social media in a fun way.

So what do you think? Would a contest like this work for all brands on Twitter? What brands would you like to see participating?

5
comments:

I think Peter came across a new use for Social Media and how it can quickly give a brand recognition. As ideas like this move forward in the new year it will be interesting to see how followers continue to take part of this type of event. I think yesterday worked well since it was on a day off for most people and at a time of the year where it is easier to stay indoors then enjoy time outdoors.

As a result of this will we start seeing people just showing up on Twitter or other mediums who only job is to shill product, hopefully not but I am sure someone is already trying to figure out this approach.

To make this work going further I believe you need to have good product as well as trust in the person offering the product giveaway. Peter has built this trust through HARO and the contacts he has in different areas. By the time the video was added there was already plenty of trust and seeing the event live just further enforced that level of trust. http://tinyurl.com/753hww

What Peter Shankman (@skydiver) did last night was brilliant. And, Brian Shaler (@brianshaler) joining in the fun absolutely took social media to a whole new level. I look forward to seeing what the future of social media holds!

Neil and Madison, Peter is definitely a visionary, showing others how to use social technologies in a fun, engaging, and productive way. Hopefully, proactive, leading brands will learn quickly and emulate Peter's accomplishment and take social media to a whole new level.

About

Many of us have found Twitter to be much more than a messaging platform, but a real community where friends, business partners, and acquaintances get together for conversation. This blog seeks to answer questions, point out tips, identify cool tools and talk about Twitter. Hopefully it will be helpful to newcomers and experts alike. It is patterned after the great Facebook related blogs Inside Facebook, All Facebook and FaceReviews.

There is a lot of great discussion going on about Twitter on many blogs. I won't duplicate those ideas, but hopefully this central place will make them easier to find.

You can learn more about me, Warren Sukernek, here. And of course, you can email me, ws AT Twittermaven DOT com or feel free to follow me @warrenss at our favorite place.